License to Travel, Patrick Bixby
License to Travel, Patrick Bixby
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License to Travel
A Cultural History of the Passport

Author: Patrick Bixby

Narrator: Tim Fannon

Unabridged: 8 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/25/2022


Synopsis

Discover the surprising global history of how the passport has shaped art, thought, and human experience to define the modern world.

License to Travel exposes the passport as both an instrument of personal freedom and a tool of government surveillance powerful enough to define our very humanity.

Patrick Bixby examines the passports of artists and intellectuals, ancient messengers and modern migrants to reveal how these seemingly humble documents implicate us in larger narratives about identity, mobility, citizenship, and state authority.

This concise cultural history:
• Takes the reader on a captivating journey from pharaonic Egypt and Handynasty China to the passport controls and crowded refugee camps of today.
• Connects intimate stories of vulnerability and desire with vivid examples drawn from world cinema, literature, art, philosophy, and politics
• Highlights the control that travel documents have over our bodies as we move around the globe.

With unexpected discoveries at every turn, from narrow escapes and new starts, tearful departures and hopeful arrivals, License to Travel shares some of our most memorable experiences involving the passport.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrew on November 27, 2022

Patrick Bixby's "License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport" is an interesting book that traces the rise of the document known as the passport. I initially started reading the book, thinking it would be a fact-based and data-driven history of the passport. However, I misunderstood the use......more

Goodreads review by Olwyn on July 27, 2023

Very light but fun book on the history of passports and their usages, super interesting, plz Google the only existing picture of Lenin sans wig that exists because of his fake passport Really interesting for looking at how the role of passports has changed over time and will continue to change Super......more

Goodreads review by Tara on April 04, 2024

This book provides an interesting and compelling history of the passport and its role in our lives as citizens and human beings. I learned a lot and thought a lot. Really enjoyable and thought-provoking.......more

Goodreads review by Chris on March 24, 2023

Although I personally couldn't stay interested in the book past the first half or so, I have to give it credit for being what it says on the tin: a *cultural* history of the passport. That is primarily a history of the object as it appears in media. If you're looking for a thorough study touching on......more